A new-look Wallabies side continued their rejuvenation under coach Joe Schmidt Saturday to overcome Georgia 40-29 in an entertaining one-off Test in Sydney.
England dominate France to claim fourth World Rugby under-20 title
- England 21-13 France
- Set-piece superiority guides team to victory
England claimed a first under-20 world title since 2016 with a victory over France founded on their ruthlessly dominant scrum and a power-packed performance that will have Steve Borthwick licking his lips. Tries from the forwards Joe Bailey and Arthur Green sealed victory in Cape Town with England’s muscle up front proving too much for the defending champions.
England were unstoppable at scrum time, winning penalties at will less than a week after Borthwick had bemoaned the senior side’s set-piece problems. The props Asher Opoku-Fordjour and Afolabi Fasogbon may soon find themselves fast-tracked, such was their superiority in a pack that was missing its first-choice tighthead in Billy Sela. Others to burnish their reputations were the second-row Junior Kpoku and the flanker Henry Pollock in a performance that bodes well as Borthwick plots a course towards the 2027 World Cup.
Continue reading...Former All Black named for Wallabies, 21yo rookie beast to debut amid 17 changes
The Wallabies will have a third captain in three games under new coach Joe Schmidt with Liam Wright failing to recover in time for Saturday’s clash with Georgia.
The Breakdown | Power rankings: Ireland top after epic win over world champions
New Zealand sit third after Scott Robertson’s strong start and England have work to do after a 2-0 defeat
Ciarán Frawley’s last-gasp drop goal sealed a stunning win in Durban, ensuring South Africa had failed to win a series against Ireland for the first time. It was the latest thrilling instalment of the global game’s leading rivalry at present and Ireland have now won two of their last three against the Springboks. Add in the 2022 series win in New Zealand and Ireland’s ability to pick up away victories in the southern hemisphere sets them apart from their European rivals. That they went to South Africa and drew the series without Jamison Gibson-Park speaks volumes about the depth Farrell has unearthed, with full-back Jamie Osborne the latest to flourish. Farrell does not pick his British and Irish Lions squad for around 10 months but at this rate it will be dominated by his Irish charges.
Continue reading...Wallabies star caps off remarkable coast-to-coast move, gifted try by rival as Aussies sweep Wales
Progress can be hard to measure when you are coming from such a long way back but a second-up Wallabies win in the Joe Schmidt era is better than the alternative.
Frawley’s last-gasp drop goal seals stunning win for Ireland in South Africa
- South Africa 24-25 Ireland
- Jack Crowley scores 14 points in thrilling Durban victory
Ciarán Frawley coolly landed a last-gasp drop goal as Ireland weathered a second-half storm to pull off a stunning 25-24 victory in Durban and secure a 1-1 series draw against South Africa. Frawley stepped off the bench to split the posts in dramatic fashion with the final action of a thrilling encounter at Kings Park Stadium after a similar effort 10 minutes earlier.
Andy Farrell’s side had looked set to slip to an agonising defeat to the back-to-back world champions after Conor Murray’s try helped reward a ferocious first-half display with a 16-6 lead. The flawless fly-half Handré Pollard slotted eight penalties to turn the contest in the Springboks’ favour on the back of their 27-20 triumph last weekend in Pretoria.
Continue reading...Australia 36-28 Wales: rugby union international – as it happened
The Wallabies remain unbeaten in 2024 after victory over Wales in Melbourne gave coach Joe Schmidt a second win
“Replicate some of the things we did well and hopefully solve some of the things we didn’t do so well.”
How’s that for some cutting edge rugby insight from Joe Schmidt?
Continue reading...Newly minted Wallabies captain Liam Wright to miss Wales clash, James Slipper to captain
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt says his new-look team learned “a bit about ourselves” in last week’s win over Wales as he named a largely unchanged line-up, albeit with a new captain, for Saturday’s second clash in Melbourne.
France’s Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jégou arrested on sexual assault charges
- Players currently on Les Bleus’ South America tour
- FFR president says an investigation is under way
Two France international rugby players have been arrested after an allegation of sexual assault was made against them during Les Bleus’ South America tour. The president of the the French rugby federation’ (FFR), Florian Grill, told reporters in Buenos Aires that if the facts are proven they are “incredibly serious”.
The two players – the 20-year-old Pau lock Hugo Auradou and the La Rochelle flanker Oscar Jégou, 21 – are set to be taken from the Argentinian capital to Mendoza, where the alleged incident happened. Mendoza staged the first Test between Argentina and France on Saturday, when Auradou and Jégou both started.
Continue reading...Bagnaia tops MotoGP standings after Martín crashes out in Germany
- Martín slid off track with two laps to go
- Brothers Marc and Álex Márquez finish second and third
Ducati’s reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia went top of the MotoGP championship after winning the German Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of Marc Márquez after title rival Jorge Martín crashed while he was leading the race with two laps to go.
Márquez’s brother Álex finished third to make it two brothers on a MotoGP podium for the first time since Japan’s Nobuatsu and Takuma Aoki finished second and third in Imola 27 years ago.
Continue reading...South Africa 27-20 Ireland: first rugby union Test – as it happened
The Springboks’ bench won a penalty try at the death to settle a thrilling contest between two true heavyweights
The players are making their way out to the field.
They pass under a sign that reads, “Altitude. 1 350m. It matters”.
Continue reading...South Africa hold firm to seal narrow win over Ireland in pulsating first Test
- South Africa 27-20 Ireland
- Late tries from Murray and Baird not enough for tourists
The Ireland wing James Lowe went from hero to zero as the world champions, South Africa, underlined their status as Test rugby’s top-ranked nation with a gripping 27-20 win in Pretoria.
Lowe produced a sensational offload to set up a debut try for Jamie Osborne and thought he had brought Andy Farrell’s men level with a superb breakaway score in the second half.
Continue reading...Aussie humiliates rival with vicious move as new Wallabies boss exacts RWC revenge
Joe Schmidt’s reign as Wallabies coach got off to a flying start in Sydney on Saturday with a hard-fought 25-16 defeat of Warren Gatland’s Wales, who slumped to their eighth straight loss.
Wallabies get seventh captain in a year as new coach Joe Schmidt names first team
Liam Wright will return to the Wallabies for the first time in five years as captain of the national team with up to seven players set to earn their debuts as new coach Joe Schmidt put a full stop on the disastrous Eddie Jones era.
A racing certainty? What a Labour government would mean for the sport
British Horseracing Authority says it has been preparing for a change of government for many months
Few could have guessed when the field came under starter’s orders for the general election in May that betting and the Gambling Commission would turn out to be such fixtures on the daily news grid. Or, for that matter, that Keir Starmer would suggest, in response to a question on his political punting habits, that he “only bets on the horses”.
Assuming the price of around 1-33 is correct and that a Labour administration with a significant majority takes the reins this week, that may well prove to be the first and last significant mention of the turf – or gambling, for that matter – by a member of the new government for some while.
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